The East Stratcom Task Force was established after the conclusions of the European Council of 20 March 2015, which called on the EU to address Russia's ongoing disinformation campaigns. It has significantly improved the effectiveness of the EU's communications towards its Eastern Neighbourhood, and, through its ‘EUvsDisinfo’ website, has catalogued, analysed and raised awareness of over 4,000 examples of disinformation. The European Council of 28 June 2018 recognised the growing importance of this work to Europe's security, inviting the High Representative and the Commission, in cooperation with the Member States to present an action plan by December 2018 with specific proposals for a coordinated EU response to the challenge of disinformation, including appropriate mandates and sufficient resources for the relevant European External Action Service Strategic Communications teams.

The Task Force was assigned a dedicated budget for the first time in 2018, in the form of a ‘StratCom Plus’ Preparatory Action of EUR 1.1 million. This funding supports more professional and technical monitoring of the information space in Eastern Partnership countries and of Russian media (operating in Russia and beyond), combining a qualitative with a quantitative approach, to detect emerging trends in relation to the EU and its policies. The Press and Information budget, allocated across some 140 EU Delegations and Offices worldwide to support communication efforts, has been reinforced by a further EUR 3 million for 2018.

These efforts comprise but one element of the coordinated EU approach to tackling online disinformation and will be taken forward in complementarity with the Commission's current planning on wider work as well as in conjunction with the EU Delegations and Commission Representations.